As you know, my family was out of town most of this week, so it was nice to get to run in Wisconsin over the weekend! This week required less milage for my marathon training plan. At this point in training, I have built up more miles over the week than I am used to and now the long runs on Saturdays start totalling 14, 15, and 16 miles. The Friday runs will also get longer. So, this week the training plan “rested” me by cutting my long run on Saturday to 8 miles.

I tried my first spin class this week. I chose a 45 minute class because I knew I had to run 6 miles on Wednesday and I didn’t want to completely wreck myself. It was a little intimidating to try something new. Especially, when I hopped on the bike and didn’t know how to change the resistance. In this class, the instructor worked between a 5-8, mostly. Think of 10 as being the hardest to peddle – then move the resistance down a couple cranks to bring you to an 8.

I am sure I wasn’t working myself as hard as I should of been, as I said, I didn’t wait to ruin my legs on my first class with a run on deck! I enjoyed the class overall and it’s nice to introduce a new element to cross training. The instructor worked sprints and hills to music, which made it fun as well as painful. Yoga has been awesome in so many ways but I just craved a calorie burn this week!

However, I really had heavy legs the next morning on my 6 mile run. The first few miles was a real push to feel even close to warmed up. By the time I felt myself loosening up, I was at mile 5 of 6, so I ran that mile pretty hard before my closing slow 6th mile. I’d like to continue to do spin but I need to find an appropriate place to fit it in to work with marathon training and not against it.

Also, my butt hurt for 2 whole days. Every time I hopped into the car on our 4 hour drive to Wisconsin, I’d forget about my sore seat and squeal in pain! My husband thought I was a total loser! It was worth it, though.

Did you take any adventures this week or try something new? Will my butt stop hurting if I make taking a spin class a regular thing?

MaryBeth at The Thrive Blog

MaryBeth is a wife and stay-at-home mother to three little boys living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I truly believe when we eat, move, love, and do, with the intentions of bettering ourselves and supporting those around us, we can flourish in this life.

11 Comments

I haven’t taken spin (I want to!) but I know from riding my bike that I eventually I stop getting saddle sore as my butt gets used to the seat. But ow! It hurts the first few times! I hope you can continue to fit spin in! 🙂 I am at that point in my training where it feels like every run takes me 5-7 miles to warm up, and it’s just…ugh. Some runs aren’t even that long! LOL

As distance runners, I think we should change the quote “never judge a run by your first mile” to “never judge a run by your first 3 miles and even then you might not ever feel good but you are a rockstar and will finish anyway”! Do you think that will fit on a t-shirt?

Yes, your butt WILL stop hurting and your run the day after a spin class that has sprint intervals in it WILL actually get faster. Your legs will turn over faster. When I was running really well and qualifying for Boston regularly, 2 spin classes were my crosstraining. Just stick with it. I’m just getting to the point with heavy strength training where it is not adversely affecting my runs. It’s a beautiful thing!

My new adventure last week was swimming…definitely not a strength of mine! But its always good to try new things! I remember my butt was really sore after my first time spinning…it definitely got better after that!

Oh girl I teach spin, and I still get a sore butt sometimes! The more you do it the easier it is on your sore muscles though. If you plan on running the next day I would say keep your resistance as low as possible and just try to increase your speed. When you are out of your seat you will of course need to have resistance up but you don’t have to go crazy! Best of luck with your new routine!!

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MaryBeth // Trails and Tris

Hi, thank you for visiting! I am a wife and stay-at-home mama to 4 little boys. We live in Minneapolis, Minnesota and thrive in an active lifestyle. You can find me running around my neighborhood, racing in Triathlons, cooking paleo and embracing adventures with my kids in tow. I believe running is parallel to life, and I am at my best just taking it one big step at a time.

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about me

MaryBeth // Trails and Tris

Hi, thank you for visiting! I am a wife and stay-at-home mama to 4 little boys. We live in Minneapolis, Minnesota and thrive in an active lifestyle. You can find me running around my neighborhood, racing in Triathlons, cooking paleo and embracing adventures with my kids in tow. I believe running is parallel to life, and I am at my best just taking it one big step at a time.